What documents are needed for an IPv4 transfer?

For each party: a recent company registration extract, proof that the signatory may act for the company, and identity verification for natural persons. On top of that, a transfer agreement (RIPE NCC), a registration services agreement (ARIN, AFRINIC), or a usage plan for the recipient (ARIN for more than a /24, APNIC, LACNIC, AFRINIC).

Do I have to send the purchase contract to the registry?

Not as such. RIPE NCC wants its own transfer agreement signed by both sides, which does not need to state the price. ARIN asks for documentation case by case, accepts redacted copies, and offers a standard NDA.

How recent must the company registration extract be?

Registries ask for a recent document. In practice, an extract older than about three months is likely to be queried, so order a fresh one when you start the transfer rather than reusing one from onboarding.

What if the original holder company no longer exists?

Then the transfer cannot start from the holder of record. First the registry has to update the record to the successor through a merger or acquisition process, with documents showing the chain from the original company to the current one. ARIN states that an 8.2 transfer may be required before an 8.3 transfer in this situation.

IPv4 Transfer Documents by Registry

Reviewed by Philippe Girard, RIR policy & compliance lead

Every registry checks the same three things: that both organisations exist, that the people signing may sign for them, and that the transfer meets policy. The documents below are how you prove each one. Missing or stale paperwork is the most common reason a transfer stalls.

Core documents, every registry

Document	Supplied by	What it proves	Common mistake
Company registration extract	Each party	The organisation exists and is active	Extract older than about three months, or in a language the registry asks to have translated
Proof of signing authority	Each party	The signer may act for the company	Signer not shown in the extract and no power of attorney attached
Identity verification	Natural persons, and sometimes signatories	Who the person is	Expired ID; RIPE NCC verifies through its third-party provider iDenfy
Registry account	Recipient	The block has somewhere to land	Membership application started after the deal, adding weeks
Transfer request	Party the registry designates	The specific resources and parties	Wrong prefix boundaries for a partial transfer

Additional documents by registry

Registry	Additional documents	Notes
RIPE NCC	Transfer Agreement signed by both parties’ authorised representatives; End User Assignment Agreement if the recipient is an End User	No needs justification. Not required for consolidations between LIRs of the same member. Both parties are checked against the EU sanctions list
ARIN	Recipient needs documentation for blocks larger than a /24; signed Registration Services Agreement within 90 days of approval	Source and recipient each file a request. Additional documents are requested case by case; redactions and an NDA are available
APNIC	Detailed plan for use of the transferred space	New accounts pay the annual membership fee before completion; existing accounts pay a transfer fee
LACNIC	Recipient needs justification	Check LACNIC’s current transfer procedure for the document list
AFRINIC	Needs justification; latest Registration Services Agreement signed by both transferor and recipient	Older RSA versions prohibited transfers, so a source on an old RSA has to sign the current one first

Sources: RIPE NCC transfers in the service region, ARIN transfers, APNIC transfer conditions, AFRINIC resource transfers. Checked October 2026.

Inter-RIR transfers

Each side supplies the documents its own registry asks for, and the source registry approves first. For a transfer out of the RIPE region, the source sends the inter-RIR template and a confirmation letter signed by a director to [email protected], along with the usual registration documents; the receiving registry then contacts the recipient. Legacy holders without a RIPE NCC contract use a separate version of the confirmation letter.

Mergers and acquisitions

A change of holder through a corporate event replaces the transfer agreement with proof of the event itself:

Merger or amalgamation certificates, filed with the company registry
The relevant pages of an asset purchase agreement: the parties, the date, the signatures, and the clause or schedule covering the network assets
Court orders, for insolvency sales
Evidence for each step if several transactions link the original holder to the current one

ARIN accepts redacted documents and asks only for the key pages of an asset purchase agreement, not the whole contract. RIPE NCC asks for the documents on its required documents for registry updates page.

Preparing the pack

Order registry extracts at the start. They are cheap and quick to obtain, and a stale extract costs a full review cycle.
Match names exactly. The legal name on the contract, the extract, and the registry record must agree, including the legal-form suffix. A name change since the block was registered is a separate registry update to do first.
Check the record before the paperwork. If the holder of record in WHOIS is not the selling entity, no document pack will fix that; see the block verification checklist.
Line up the recipient’s registry account early. Opening an LIR, ARIN Org ID, or APNIC account runs in parallel with negotiation, not after it.

The transfer process overview shows where in the sequence each document is needed. Sellers preparing a block for sale can also start from selling IPv4 with document support.

Last updated on October 3, 2026

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